Quote:
My family's been on this piece since either 1895, 1901, or 1905, depending on which relative you talk to. Olympia used to be as far back in the hills as you can get at sea level, and Union Mill was the biggest electric sawmill in the world for a while, and the forty I live on was where my great-grandfather kept his road-building draft horse team and the usual milk cows, chickens and pigs, and planted a half-acre of orchard. In my lifetime, we ran Holstein replacement heifers and a small meat herd until my sister and I got tired of walking backwards and used our 4-H money to buy beef heifers. Through the usual randomness of fate, 45 years later we've got a whole lot of Angus and black crosses and a little bunch of Shorthorns. Most of the black herd is on my BIL's family place.
And somebody named Judy, who I hear is around this place, is going to say "That sounds strangely familiar."
I wonder how many of the BYCers on here know why you walked backwards...I do! I do! I do!. I showed a Gurnsey and a Brown Swiss in 4-H while growing up. Showing dairy, you have to walk backwards. Never knew why though. I taught Gertie the Gurnsey how to bow...now tell me how useful that is to a milk cow. that is alright, her first calf, Ash, I taught to shake hands. LOL.
ETA: Because I forgot the type of cow I had....too long ago.
When I was nine or ten- first year 4Her, in any case- I was hired to lead a perfectly tame and friendly Brown Swiss Junior Yearling Heifer for the 4H-FFA state championship judging at Puyallup; her muzzle was right at my face level, and she'd been eating spent brewery solids and had the worst breath ever for a cow.
I showed Holsteins (see dairy replacement heifer business) and my last one was a gem; she would stop and set herself up without a hand on the lead. We kept her as a family milk cow for ages after, and finally sold her to some who'd just moved to Rochester and were looking for a good cow to be around little kids.
(To keep this on topic, I just came in from contriving a small door for feeding treats to chickens; Ian and Sylvia had to supervise the operation, which made it more of a challenge).